Apparatus for automatically cutting poultry carcasses into pieces is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 2,807,046 which issued Sep. 24, 1957 to Hebenheimer, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,945 which issued Feb. 8, 1972 to Duncan, Dapec and Johnson. These machines use relatively complicated conveying means including a conveying chain and rotating bird holding modules for the poultry. Another automatic machine for the cutting of poultry carcasses into pieces is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,223 which issued Apr. 26, 1977 to Baker and was never fully operable in a production setting because its air logic, poor cutting accuracy, and safety concerns.
Hand-operated devices are also used for slitting the carcasses of poultry. These devices include a bar which projects into the central cavity of the carcass during the cutting operation as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,941,238 which issued Jun. 21, 1960, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,284,846, which issued Nov. 15, 1966, both to Reeves, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,957,198 which issued Oct. 25, 1960 to Cianciolo.
The present invention provides an apparatus which is compact, accurately cuts a poultry carcass into as many as twelve pieces, substantially automatically, and which does not require the use of a conveyor of the chain type and does not need any rotating modules.